


The Impostor

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 05:57:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20271094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Fear and Death have been at odds since the beginning. Where Death goes, Fear follows, driving away all those with enough sense to heed his warnings, and Death resents him for it. After his defeat at the hands of the Guardians, Fear is left vulnerable. This is when Death makes her move. She means to rid herself of him, for good this time.+Pitch and Lady Death have quite a history, what with the Boogeyman constantly scaring people away from her. At one time they may have been allies, but today they remain bitter enemies. With Pitch weakened from his encounter with the Guardians, Lady Death decided to finish him off, however it’s not as easy as she imagined.Bonus: Pitch goes (reluctantly) to the Guardians for help"All of this is Pitch going to the Guardians for help. And, as it turns out, this Lady Death doesn’t seem like the Death they know of.





	The Impostor

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 9/12/2016.

“Oh, what the—” Bunny looked down at Pitch. He was curled on the ground, in a worse state than Bunny had ever seen him. He could hardly believe that Pitch had had the strength to summon him in the first place. “Well, if you were faking, you would have gone to North’s, right?”  
  
“I need help,” Pitch said. He didn’t raise his head to look at Bunny. “I think De—oh, never mind. You wouldn’t believe me anyway.”  
  
“If you’re calling on me because you couldn’t call anyone else…” Bunny shook his head. “I don’t really want to help you, after what happened last Easter. But in your state…it makes sense for me to take you prisoner, so the Guardians can keep an eye on you.”   
  
“Whatever,” Pitch muttered.  
  
Bunny scoffed and picked Pitch up. He made no move to struggle. “We’re still not going to the Warren, though.”  
  


* * *

  
  
“So!” North said, addressing Pitch. “How did you come to be in this state?”  
  
Pitch frowned. “I don’t think you’ll believe me,” he said. He glanced around the room. It was small, and windowless, and he supposed it was meant as a cell, but it was decorated in the same style as the rest of the workshop and the most comfortable place he’d been in for a while. He walked slowly to the bed and sat down. “Why don’t you just keep me prisoner here? You’d know that you were safe from me, then. And that the children were safe from me.” He sighed, and leaned forward, looking at the floor.  
  
The Guardians looked at each other. “We’ve never kept you prisoner before,” Tooth said. “Surely you understand that’s how this works? You’re free to do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t harm the children.”  
  
After a pause Pitch gave a small nod. He raised his head wearily. “I’d like to have a good argument about whether believing in me harms them, but…I’m too tired. And afraid for my own life.”  
  
“And I believe him about that,” Bunny said. “Pitch must have known I’d still be angry with him when he summoned me, but he knows none of us would try to kill him.”  
  
_Why are you afraid?_ Sandy asked. _Did you get attacked by something other than the nightmares?_  
  
“Yes,” Pitch said. “A being I’ve seen before, but never close enough to attack me physically. They appeared as a woman, dressed in a long black robe. Her face and hands were disturbingly thin—skeletal would be the best word. Her hair was dark and unkempt.”  
  
The others looked to Jack, who had spent the most time out in the world. “She wasn’t one of a group a beings, was she?” he asked. “Not a type of fey?”  
  
Pitch shook his head. “Even after my defeat, I would not have been driven to ask for Guardian help following the attack of a fey so obscure I didn’t recognize her on sight.”  
  
“Yeah, that’s what’s tripping me up,” Jack said. “Hardly anyone knew me before I became a Guardian, but you recognized me. It’s hard for me to believe you wouldn’t know the name of someone powerful enough to take you down.”  
  
“Well, what troubles me is that none of you seem to recognize her,” Pitch said. “No one else has, either, when I’ve described her. And yet…she’s said her name to me.” He looked away from the group. “Lady Death,” he said. “And she’s very angry with me. Now that I’m weak, she wants to get rid of me once and for all.”  
  
_Did she ever say why?_  
  
“Yes. As you Guardians may not know, fear, when carefully applied, can keep many a child out of dangerous—deadly—situations. This Lady Death noticed me when I did make those careful applications of fear. She saw my actions as cheating her. As building up a debt. And now I am almost weakened enough for her to collect. I don’t want to die, and I don’t think she’ll be able to enter any Guardian realms, so…well, you all know my solution.”  
  
Sandy was the first one to reply. _But who you saw couldn’t be Death._  
  
“Yes, I expected you to know that, and for the rest of you not to believe me. So, do I stay here as a ‘guest,’ or do I leave to be killed? I would like to have a chance to argue that by kicking me out you’re as good as killing me—”  
  
Sandy held up his hand. _I believe everything that you said. But who you saw still couldn’t be Death. Death is patient. Death can’t be cheated. Lady Death, whatever she is, seems to be trying to take on a role that isn’t hers._  
  
“I wish I had known that sooner; I might have been able to fight back against her,” Pitch said. “As it was, I wasn’t sure if I should try. If she was really Death, I didn’t want to have anything to do with her.”  
  
“Did you ever see her present at someone’s death?” Tooth asked.  
  
Pitch shook his head. “But I didn’t see her very often, you understand.”  
  
“Or she never wanted to be seen in the same place as the real Death,” Bunny said. “So what are we going to do about this?”  
  
“We are going to find the Lady Death,” North said at once. “If she berates Pitch for leading children away from danger, it can only be that she wants to lead children _toward_ danger. And, Pitch, we must talk more of you leading children out of danger. When was this? Why did you not tell anyone? Why—”  
  
_Later, North,_ Sandy signed, catching Pitch’s expression. _We should also be careful of something else. Lady Death may have been hunting Pitch specifically, rather than children. And even if she is hunting children, she’s been able to avoid our notice for a long time. She won’t like us, and she’s powerful._  
  
“Do you have a plan in mind for facing her?” Tooth asked.  
  
_I think we should maybe get her face to face with the being whose position she’s trying to claim._  
  
“If I didn’t know you meant it literally, little man, I’d be impressed with your coldness,” Pitch remarked. “But since you do—well, like it or not, I’m staying here until I’m well enough to come watch.” 


End file.
